Sony has said that they expect their Bravia TV sales to crash by as much as 35% from a forcast 25% decline.
Sony who is reeling from a 94% profit decline and a record battery recall as well as PlayStation 3 game console delays, forecast prices for their Bravia LCD TV’s will decline faster than it anticipated because of increased competition.
Prices of the Bravia liquid-crystal display TVs will probably fall as much as 30 percent in the year ending March 31, Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda said today at a news conference in Tokyo, where Sony is based. The company’s earlier projection was for a maximum price decline of 25 percent, he said.
Falling TV prices may further undermine Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer’s plan to revive earnings at the world’s second-largest consumer-electronics maker. Sony cut its annual profit forecast to a five-year low after lowering prices of the PlayStation 3 and as faulty notebook batteries led to the biggest recall in consumer electronics history.
I am still not motivated to buy the stock with the unclear outlook for PS3 sales and increasing price competition in the flat-panel television market,'' said Koichi Takatsuka, who oversees $1 billion at UAM Japan Inc. in Tokyo. </P><P>Oneda's comments highlight the challenges facing the maker of Bravia TVs as it prepares to battle Samsung Electronics Co.'s Bordeaux models and Sharp Corp.'s Aquos TVs in the $25.5 billion industry's busiest quarter. </P><DIV class=NFBreak contentEditable=false style=page-break-before:always> </DIV><P></P><P>Competition is very intense,” Oneda said.
Sony accounted for 11.7 percent of global LCD TV sales during the quarter ending June 30, according to market researcher DisplaySearch. Sony ranked fourth in global LCD TV sales, behind Royal Philips Electronics NV, Samsung and Sharp, after taking the top spot in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the Austin, Texas-based researcher.
Battle Preparation
The company expects to sell 40 percent of the forecast six million LCD TV shipments this fiscal year during the quarter ended Dec. 31. While LCD TV sales rose, they were unprofitable during the fiscal second-quarter, said Takao Yuhara, head of investor relations. Sony makes 82 percent of its electronics sales from outside Japan.
Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said earlier this month that demand for Bordeaux TVs helped the company widen its lead as the biggest flat-panel TV maker in the U.S. and Europe. TV profitability during the quarter ending Dec. 31 will probably rise from the preceding quarter, according to Samsung.
Sharp, which yesterday said fiscal second-quarter profit rose 33 percent to 22.6 billion yen, is stepping up efforts to focus on overseas sales. The company is doubling its advertising budget to promote its Aquos TVs in markets outside of Japan to regain the top spot, Takashi Nakagawa, head of Sharp’s international business, told reporters last month.
